MB Trading Futures - Introduction

Anyone see an issue with the leverage being fixed?

I have heard it said that trading with MBT, one does not incur the spread twice as other brokers.

Anyone with input would be appreciated.

Spreads & commissions are paid on both entry & exit.

Leverage is 100:1 for all currency pairs and accounts.

Maverick ~

Let me answer that for you and bring what you heard to how it works. A spread is the difference between the best buyer (the bid) and the best offer (the ask) in any marketplace. In forex, traditionally, since you were only trading against one “desk,” they set the spread. Therefore, if someone bought and sold the exact same size at the exact same time, they sold to the buyer at the ask and bought from the seller at the bid, thus making the spread. That’s what a spread is. Of course, in any market, there will ALWAYS be a difference between the best buyer and the best seller. If there wasn’t, then the two parties would hit each other and form a trade.

Now, previously in forex, it might have been fair to measure the spreads because that was where the money was made by your broker. And, let’s face it. If the GBPUSD is 1.9600 by 1.9604 and you want to buy, you have to pay 1.9604. How do you know trading isn’t occurring at lower prices? You don’t. So you are certainly paying the spread from the perspective of lost opportunity to know where the market really is. Keep in mind that a desk quote could even by 1.9600 by 1.9604, and yet the interbank trading could be occurring at 1.9599 or 1.9598. They don’t have to keep it in-line. So that’s a lot of lost opportunity. And then the same thing goes later if the price is 1.9650 by 1.9654 and you want to sell. How many pips are lost by having to sell at 1.9650 when there could be trading several pips higher? It is not possible to measure this, and thus, that is the reason that the deal desks have made so much money.

Now, let’s roll to 2008. No desk here. No trading against. No limit on the order types that you can place. If you want to take the GBPUSD at 1.9650 by 1.9652 and try to buy it at 1.9651, then you become the bid at 1.9651. If someone sells at that price or lower, you get filled. So if the bid is 1.9651 and you get filled, did you pay the spread? Either way, if you want? There is still always a difference between the bid and ask, as I said above, because buyers and sellers at the same price create trades. The rest of the buyers and sellers create the market. How you choose to interact with that is up to you. If you never wanted to do anything but place limit buy orders at the bid or lower and limit sell orders at the ask or higher, then I would say that you would never be paying the spread and never suffer any of the true lost opportunities of the market, because the pricing is based on the interbank system. If you want to just buy and sell at the market, you should get the bid and ask prices, so does that mean that you are paying the spread? There’s no other way to get an immediate fill other than to find the best price in the other direction.

Justin,

Do you know why 3dfx only has to put up 500K as a net cap requirement instead of 5M?

TDFX does not have retail clients....only FCM's and Broker/Dealers can connect directly with TDFX.

That's what I thought which leads me to my next question: will they have to put on their website that they take the other side of the trade like other FCM's in a month. (not saying that they do)

i wish you did GBP accounts

Anyone else noticed that hardly any marketmaker on this platform quotes in 0.1 pip increments today? There appears to be only one who quotes in .5 pip increments, but 95% of the time prices are round pips. This used to be quite different. Also the book seems not to be as deep as it used to be.

I am using this feed for charting, and the number of ticks dropped significatnly (last week the tick-vol was 3 times higher than today during active hours). My 50-tick charts used to be nice and smooth, but now its all edgy. Im going to have to look for another dataprovider if it stays like that.

Anyone knows whats up? Did some liq.providers decide to pull out?

It has nothing to do with LP.

If the number of LPs drop, the market depth (size) will decrease accordinly. And I don't see any hint regard this.

There used to be 40-60 mio. in eur/usd in the book, and today its only 20-25?
There used to be way more quotes per minute than today?
Only (nearly) full pip quotes?

Since L.P. are making the prices, it has something to do with them. But then again, hopefully maybe its just a temporary technical glitch.

any other (ecn) brokers's book show the same phenomenum? Sorry, I don't have Hot nor IB account.

If not, your suppose is sustained.

If yes, then this is due to current market situation.

regards

ZKF

Depends on how the NFA classifies, "taking the other side of the trade". Someone has to act as the counter party - but if TDFX just passed the orders through, would that still be taking the other side?

Thats a valid question Justin. IMO taking the other side of the trade would not be passing it through. Taking the other side would be taking risk and running a book of some sort. TDFX would never be the other side of the trade if they are just passing it through, to me that is the same thing as a non clearing FCM, kind of like PFG in futures.

I agree with you 100% - I too feel it is not the same thing; consequently TDFX should not be required to state on their website that they take the other side of the trade. Will the NFA see it that way? I guess TDFX will find out.

Justin hi.
I have the following problem:when i try to enter with a stop limit order i usually dont get a fill because the market moves very fast (my way).So i usually cancel the order because the market has already moved 4-5-6 pips away and if my order is still pending i get a fill during the pullback.
I have set the price vs speed cursor @3 but i havent seen any difference.
Besides i have read somewhere (correct me if i am wrong)that this price vs speed thing doesnt work in currency
Thanks in advance

Hi panos69 ~

How much room are you giving between the stop price and limit price for the entry?

With regards to price vs. speed - keep it at '0' to insure the best possible pricing - the execution will already be there.

Hi Justin.
I usually set the difference between stop and limit @ 0 pips(PLS DONT LAUGH).But last week it was set @ 4pips and i didnt get a fill 3 times

How is EFX/MBT going to be affected by the expected increases in the NFA Capital Requirements?